I stayed in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg for a week, and just got to Munich a couple nights ago. I didn't have internet for most of the time I was there, and as weird and lonely as it was to be cut off from everything and everyone, it made me more sharply focused on where I was. After I got over the discouraging feeling of non-internet isolation (realizing how dependent I am on internet communication/information), I thought I'd just stay out of the apartment as often as possible. And since the transportation in Nuremberg is more expensive than anywhere else I've stayed (three euros per subway ride, meaning six euros to go to and from a given place), I walked the city completely.

My interest in the city of Nuremberg was split into two large areas: the "Nazi area" (where there is a tight concentration of buildings created during Hitler's Third Reich) and the "medieval area" (where a centuries-old fortification surrounds old buildings, churches, and even a castle with some sections being over 900 years old).

On the first day in Nuremberg, I went to the museum located in what was meant to be the congress hall under the Nazi government. It was a museum that talked a lot of Nuremberg's significance in the Third Reich as well as the architectural plans that were begun there. I knew a fair bit about this already, having read an autobiography from Albert Speer (the chief architect for much of the Third Reich). Basically, even before the Nazis came to power in 1933, they held rallies in Nuremberg. This was mainly due to the Luitpold war memorial, which was the central point of pre-1933 rallies. After they came to power, Hitler wanted to give his rallies a shot of steroids and so commissioned Albert Speer to create massive spaces for people to gather, as well as a road to serve the rallies and their guests (who often numbered well into the hundreds of thousands). A congress hall and a colosseum for martial events was also planned. The rally grounds were the only thing that ended up being completed. The road (called the Grosse Strasse, or Great Road) only had 1.5 out of 2 kilometers completed. The congress hall was maybe about a third finished (it never even had a roof placed over it and so now resembles a colosseum), and the actual colosseum is nothing more than a few cement blocks set into an otherwise unremarkable hill. Once Hitler began the war, the Nuremberg construction plans (and other big Nazi architectural plans) were totally abandoned, with most projects being diverted for the war. In Albert Speer's book, Hitler actually complains often about the war as if it's some nuisance being foisted onto him because he just wants to get back to his pet project of rebuilding German cities in the Nazi image. There's a lot of bizarre flip-flopping described in Speer's memoirs like that. Anyway.

The Great Street and the other Nazi projects are largely falling into decay. All along the Great Street, for example, are places where people could stand to watch parades and the like. These platforms that span the entire 1.5 km of road are now being overthrown by nature. There were places where growing trees had literally upturned the cement slabs that make up the steps. There was something almost beautiful about it.

I was surprised that the WWI memorial at the Luitpold park was not, in fact, constructed by Nazis. It really fits into their harsh, overly-simple and scale-obsessed take on neoclassicism and symmetry, though. Anyway, here, the Nazis would pay respect to the war that they thought best exemplified German militarism and power. They would also try to link the war sacrifice to that of the Nazis who were killed in the 1923 failed attempt by Hitler to overthrow the Weimar Republic (they would also carry out this ceremony at the Feldernhalle in Munich). In this way they sort of co-opted the space to conform to their nationalistic narrative. When I saw this place, it was littered with bottles of alcohol and plastic cups. When I went inside the actual memorial (which now also serves as a memorial to those who died in both World Wars, on both sides), I found some anti-semitic/pro-Nazi graffiti, which was quite depressing. I have heard that neo-Nazis like to gather in the same places that hosted Nazi rallies, so I guess the person who made the hateful graffiti knew about the historical significance of the place. Anyway, the surrounding park area was admittedly really relaxed and nice. It was restored to a garden state after the Third Reich fell. During Hitler's reign, the area surrounding the memorial was nothing but huge cement pave stones.

This is the grandstand of the former Nazi rally grounds, from where Hitler and other high-ranking Nazis would have spoken to crowds of hundreds of thousands. It may not look like much, but most of the grandstand has actually been demolished because it was simply falling apart. A huge row of Greek columns flanked the centre of the grandstand, making it look like a giant version of the Pergamon Altar of ancient Greece. In the old photos of the grandstand, it certainly looks a lot more grandiose. It's all hilariously ironic when you know a little bit about the mentality behind Nazi architecture. Albert Speer proposed an idea that he coined as "Ruins Theory" or the Theory of Ruins, when trying to come up with an aesthetic. The idea was that modern structures of glass and steel could shatter or rust, and look utterly embarassing when left to decay. However, buildings made mostly of stone retained a certain dignity and power even when they were falling apart. For example: look at ancient Roman, Greek or Egyptian structures. Even though they're thousands of years old, people can still look at them and feel the power of those civilizations. Though the grandstand definitely looks a bit like something out of ancient Rome, I find it funny that it only took about twenty years for it to crumble to the point where it was such a danger that it had to be half-demolished. There's an ongoing historical project to restore the grandstand at the cost of millions of euros. I guess it fell into ruin a lot faster than Speer or Hitler guessed.

​People standing at the spot where Hitler would have spoken from.

These large buildings surround the perimeter of the rally grounds. The steps you see between them lead up into seating. Funnily enough, these buildings originally served as public toilets, and some of them are actually still in service during sports events.

The biggest of the Nazi installations is by far the congress hall (which, because of its shape and the lack of a roof, I initially confused for the collosseum). This is the second biggest Nazi building ever made, with the biggest being an obscure resort on an island off the coast of Denmark for workers of the Third Reich. Anyway, I can't remember the precise number, but I think something like 1,400 workers were employed for the construction of this monster that was never finished. The noise and activity of construction probably would have dominated the area, and I can only imagine how ugly it would look going up over the lake that it sits on. I've seen pictures of people in leisurely canoe rides in the lake with the big ugly construction project risking up behind them. The congress hall is roughly twice the size of the Colosseum in Rome. The actual Nazi Colosseum was supposed to be even bigger.

The congress hall from across the Grosser Dutzenteich Lake. Just to the left of the thing, you can sort of see a rollercoaster that was there as part of the Volksfest of Nuremberg, which was going on while I was there. Quite an odd juxtaposition! I went through the amusement park area, and at no point did I lose sight of the giant Third Reich building looming over everything.

One of the other things I was interested in seeing was the Palace of Justice, which is where the Nuremberg trials happened. This is where the remaining Nazi leaders were either sentenced to long prison terms or death. The way Germany was occupied after World War Two (including the international legal process) marked a different way of treating the losing nation of a war--basically, allowing the nation to rebuild under the financial and military occupation of the country, dealing with generally only the war criminals on the highest rungs of Nazi hierarchy (the government leaders, especially those directly responsible for the Holocaust, as well as death camp commanders) while those lower down (at least under the Americans, British and French). So, Germany was split into four (mostly due to the Potsdam conference, which I talked about when I was still in Berlin) and given four different privisional governments. Ironically, the Western provisional government (managed by America, England and France) was arguably the most stable form of government that Germany had up until that point in their history. Some people have criticized the whole "rebuild" approach to post-war strategy as a type of 'soft-colonialism.' I personally see it as much better than the reparations method that destroyed the German economy after the first World War and set the stage for political extremism. It also meant that German economy could begin to recover, and the buildings that had been annihilated in cities like Berlin or Dresden could be rebuilt. It's an interesting aspect of history, because it demonstrates that the allies' understanding of the post-WWI treaty of Versailles was a mistake that needed to be learned from. It pays to know you history.

​And then there was the castle stuff. It was only about a half hour walk away from where I lived (maybe a bit more), near the main train station of Nuremberg. It's really easy to see from the street: this area of town, called the Altstadt, is surrounded by a medieval castle wall. It's apparent that there also used to be a moat around this wall, but this moat area is now walkable and actually has a small skating park down there. From the street, you can see all of this, including the large guard towers that are part of the wall.

The Wall as seen from inside. I loved the walkway that was visible around most of the wall, and it made it easy to picture its original use as an area from which guards could look out at the surrounding landscape, or fire volleys when under siege.

There were a ton of old buildings and churches in the Altstadt. This is the Market square on a Sunday, with the Frauenkiche in the background.

I love the little adornments on buildings: there were a bunch of businesses with their signs looking like the one above, as if still in the middle ages except for the use of modern fonts. Carvings of Saints and holy figures were also commonly seen on the sides of buildings. There certainly was a fairly tale vibe to the place.

The Altstadt of Nuremberg is divided by the Pegnitz River. It's super scenic along there, with ducks and geese of various types all over the place. There's also a lot of bridges crossing it: covered wooden bridges, big stone ones, suspension bridges. There was also a good place to watch/feed/photograph the waterbirds. As soon as I got to the edge of the water, they'd swarm me and actually jump out of the water to get close. I ended up taking a lot of pictures of the birds, but here's just a few:

Even though there were a ton of interesting sights in the Altstadt, the best thing was undoubtebly the Nuremberg Castle, which is actually two castles together, as well as a building for Burgraves. You had to climb a series of steep hills to get up to the castle stuff, and it made for a lot of impressive views of the city. According to Wikipedia, the castle and its respective fortifications are considered the most formidable medieval defences in Europe. It might have been built as early as 1105-1140, making it over 900 years old.

The weather was great in Nuremberg. It's definitely spring in Bavaria now, with sun on most days and temperatures in the mid-20s. Exploring Nuremberg on foot with only a hoodie instead of the usual bulky winter jacket was awesome. It was ideal weather for sketching too, and I did a number of sketches on both the Nazi-related stuff and the Altstadt. The city has a ton of history, and is definitely recommendable. Unfortunately I didn't really do anything outside of what's shown here (I was only there for a week), but maybe someday I'll go back. It's still a fairly small city, and the two sections I mentioned could probably be done with only two days there. It was a great atmosphere (with great weather) to do sketches and explore.

I'm currently in Munich, the last place for my project (though I will be going to Hamburg and Schwangau after my project is technically over). I decided I'm going to continue the blog after I get home to Canada (May 9) and update as I work the project into its final form.

Curtis Botham

Travelling in Germany from January-May 2016. I will try and update weekly as I go from city to city, creating art, taking photos and exploring historical sites. My first blog entry ("The Germany Project: Overview") explains the project I'm undertaking, as well as the preparation I went through.